A solemn festival of the Jews, so called, because it was celebrated fifty days after the feast of the passover, Lev 23:15. It corresponds with the Christians’ Whitsuntide, for which it is sometimes used.
The day of Pentecost was so first called after our Lord’s ascension. Before that period the church called it the feast of weeks, " (Exod. 34. 22.) and it was one of those three great feasts in which all the males were require to appear before the Lord. The word Pentecost means the fiftieth, being fifty days from the Passover. The feast itself was appointed perhaps with a double view; first, to commemorate the giving of the law on mount Sinai, which was on the fiftieth day after the children of Israel had left Egypt; and, secondly,and for which it was enjoined as a feast, to testify that Israel’s Lord was the rightful owner of all Israel’s property, and they as tenants holding those possessions during the pleasure of their almighty landlord, and thus they were called upon cheerfully to pay their high rent in offering to him the first fruits of all their increase.
This festival in the ancient church was very highly celebrated, as we may plainly perceive from the multitude that came from all parts, to trade on those occasions, on the day of Pentecost, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, chap. 2: How far religious duties occupied the minds of the children of Israel, in those dark ages, is not very easy to determine. The modern Jews of the present hour, holding by tradition the festival as chiefly referring to the giving of the law on mount Sinai, of which they are very tenacious, and notknowing that it is the ministration of condemnation, they celebrate this festival for two days with great attention. They adorn both the synagogue and their own houses with flowers, and make it altogether a time of festivity. In the religious parts of their services on those occasions, it is said that they read in the Scriptures of Moses what relates to the feast of weeks, and conclude their ceremonies in mutual good wishes for the prosperity of each other and their nation.
What a vast superiority hath the true believer in Jesus in celebrating our Pentecost! This blessed festival in the church of Christ is wholly spiritual. Contemplating the first open descent of God the Holy Ghost as the first fruits of the Lord Jesus’s gifts to his people in his return to glory, when he had finished redemption - work upon earth, we are taught to hail the coming of the Holy Ghost as the most blessed of all evidences, concerning the truth as it is in Jesus. And when the soul of a real believer in Christ is truly regenerated,and enabled by divine teaching to enter into a real heartfelt enjoyment of what is contained in the doctrine of the descent of God the Holy Ghost upon the church, then this only festival becomes to every individual believer a renewed Pentecost indeed. As the proper apprehension of this subject is truly interesting, I shall beg permission from the reader to dwell yet somewhat more particularly upon it. If we attend to what the word of God hath graciously revealed in, reference to the sacred purposes of JEHOVAH in redemption, we may discover that as all the three divine persons of the GODHEAD have been and are engaged in the accomplishment of the work, so the Scriptures point out the special office of each. In the Old Testament we find God the Father proclaiming to the church the coming of his dear Son. In the New Testament we have that promise realized, and God the Son accomplishing the whole purposes, of salvation. And after his ascension and return to glory we have the visible manifestation of God the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, to carry on and render effectual the great purposes of redemption in the hearts of the people by his almighty grace and power. So that there is a beautiful order in the design and execution of the work itself, as well as grace and mercy in the dispensation.
The day of Pentecost therefore opens with the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in his sevenfold gifts and graces. Hitherto the kingdom of grace had been supplied with the occasional effusions of the Spirit on the church, as the sacred purposes of JEHOVAH’S will required. "The Holy Ghost, it is said, was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7: 39.) But now that the Son of God hath finished the whole of his ministry upon earth, and is returned to glory, the Holy Ghost comes down in a fulness of blessings,and to him is committed the whole efficiency of the work, as the Almighty Minister in the church, to render the whole effectual; and to this agree the words of the prophets: Isa 4:4: 3 - 5. Joel 2: 28, &c. Acts 2: 14 - 34.
I beg to add one observation more on this view of our Christian Pentecost, namely, what a confirmation it gives to all the interesting doctrines of our most holy faith. The promise of God the Father in the Old Testament, and the promise of God the Son in the New Testament, both taught the church to be on the look - out for the coming of the Holy Ghost. And as the glorious period drew nigh when this Almighty Spirit would come and dwell in the hearts of his redeemed, the promises concerning him became more clear and pointed. The Lord Jesus, in his farewell sermon, when instituting his holy Supper as the standing memorial of his death, most particularly described his person, character, and offices. (See John chap. 14. xv. and 16.) And again, in the very moment of his departure, he reminded his disciples of the near approach of this blessed guest. "Behold (said Jesus) I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." (Luke 24. 49.) And still farther he added at the same parting interview, "John (said Jesus) truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." (Acts i. 5.) And agreeably to this promise, the Holy Ghost actually came down ten days after, on the day of Pentecost when those events took place which are recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
Now from hence the following just and evident conclusion is unavoidable, and must follow: If Christ had not been God, how could he have had power and authority to have sent the Holy Ghost? If Christ had not completed salvation, and finished the work the Father gave him to do, how would his promise have been fulfilled in the gift of the Spirit? If Christ had not ascended, how would the Holy Ghost have descended in exact conformity to what he had said? Can any thing upon earth be more palpable and plain in confirmation of all the great truths of our holy faith, that when the Holy Ghost came down, Jesus was gone up, and God the Father confirmed the perfect approbation he had several times from heaven by a voice given of his dear Son, that he was well pleased in him, by sending down, according to Christ’s promise, the Holy Ghost? The Lord Jesus had told his disciples before his departure, that it was expedient for them he should go away. For (said Jesus) if I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." (Joh 16:7.) He did depart, and the Holy Ghost came. What an evidence to all the other glorious testimonies of his mission! And I must contend for it, as for one of the plainest matters of fact the world was ever called to judge upon, that in the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, we have as palpable a seal to the truth of the gospel as we have to any one of the most common events in the circumstances of human life; yea, the subject will warrant my going farther, and to say, that in the heart of every individual sinner whom "the Lord hath made willing in the day of his power, " that soul is a living evidence of the descent of the Holy Ghost. And surely it is by these evidences now, in the present awful day of infidelity, and a Christ - despising generation, the Lord is bringing forth proofs to the doctrine of his dear Son. The Lord speaks in every one of them in terms similar to the words by the prophet: "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen." (Isa. xl3: 10.)
I have greatly swollen this article beyond my first intention, yet I cannot take leave of it without adding a short observation, just to remark how needful it must be in every follower of the ever - blessed Jesus to examine in his own heart for the evidence of his Pentecost mercy, whether that holy Spirit hath witnessed in his spirit to the truth as it is in Jesus?" Blessed is the man that can testify to the Spirit’s work in his own heart in all the offices, characters, and gifts of God the Holy Ghost. When we know him as Jesus describedhim, the Spirit of truth to guide into all truth; the Witness to our spirits that we are the children of God; the Glorifier of Jesus; the Comforter of the soul; the Spirit of grace, of supplication, and prayer; the Helper of our infirmities; the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge in the revelation of Christ Jesus in a word, the great and sovereign minister in the church and heart of all his people, from the first quickenings of grace, until grace be consummated in eternal glory. Oh, for the blessed earnest of the Holy Ghost thus totestify to his own impressions on the soul, whereby believers are sealed unto the day of redemption!" (Eph. 4: 30.)
Pen´tecost, the name (signifying fiftieth) given in the New Testament to the Feast of Weeks, or of Ingathering, which was celebrated on the fiftieth day from the festival of unleavened bread, or the Passover; or seven weeks from the 16th day of Nisan. It was a festival of thanks for the harvest, and commenced immediately after the Passover [FESTIVALS]. It was one of the three great yearly festivals, in which all the males were required to appear before God at the place of his sanctuary. Josephus states that in his time great numbers of Jews resorted from every quarter to Jerusalem to keep this festival. This testimony affords interesting corroboration of Act 2:1; Act 2:9-11; Act 20:16; 1Co 16:8, in which the same fact appears. The commencement of the Christian church on the day of Pentecost, preceded as it was by our Lord’s ascension, attached a peculiar interest to this season, and eventually led to its being set apart for the commemoration of these great events. It was not, however, established as one of the great festivals until the fourth century. The combination of two events (the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost) in one festival has a parallel in the original Jewish feast, which is held to have included the feast of first-fruits, and of the delivering of the law (Exo 23:16; Lev 23:14-21; Num 28:26). Indeed, this festival in some respects bears a close analogy to the Jewish one; and is evidently little more than a modification of it. The converts of that day, on which the Holy Ghost descended, were the first fruits of the Spirit. This festival became one of the three baptismal seasons, and it derives its name of Whitsunday, or white-Sunday, from so many being clad in white on this the day of their baptism.
The fiftieth, a feast celebrated the fiftieth day after the sixteenth of Nisan, which was the second day of the feast of the Passover, Lev 25:15-16 . The Hebrews call it the "feast of weeks," Exo 34:22, because it was kept seen weeks after the Passover. They then offered the first fruits of their wheat harvest, which at that time was completed, Deu 16:9-10 . These first fruits consisted in two loaves of leavened bread, of five pints of meal each, Lev 23:17 . Besides this offering, there were special sacrifices prescribed for this festival, Num 28:26-31 .\par The feast of Pentecost was instituted, first, to oblige the Israelites to repair to the temple of the Lord, and there acknowledge his dominion over their country and their labors, by offering to him the first fruits of all their harvests. Secondly, to commemorate, and to render thanks to God for the law given from Mount Sinai, on the fiftieth day after their coming out of Egypt. It was on the day of Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit as first poured out upon the apostles and the Christian church, Mal 2:1-3 . On this occasion, as on the Passover seven weeks before, Judaism was at the same time honored and gloriously superseded by Christianity. The paschal lamb gave place to "Christ our Passover;" and the Jewish feast in memory of the giving of the law, to the gift of the Holy Spirit for "every nation under heaven," Mal 2:5 . This gift was for the whole period of the gospel dispensation; and the mighty effects then produced foreshow the yet greater works the Spirit will perform in answer to prayer.\par
Pen’tecost. Pentecost, that is, the fiftieth day, (from a Greek word, meaning fiftieth), or Harvest Feast, or Feast of Weeks, may be regarded as a supplement to the Passover. It lasted for but one day. From the sixteenth of Nisan, seven weeks were reckoned inclusively, and the next or fiftieth day was the Day of Pentecost, which fell on the sixth of Sivan, (about the end of May). Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22; Lev 23:15; Lev 23:22; Numbers 28. See the Jewish Calendar at the end of this volume.
The Pentecost was the Jewish harvest-home, and the people were especially exhorted to rejoice before Jehovah with their families their servants, the Levite within their gates, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, in the place chosen by God, for his name, as they brought a free-will offering, of their hand to Jehovah their God. Deu 16:10-11.
The great feature of the celebration was the presentation of the two loaves made from the first-fruits of the wheat harvest. With the loaves, two lambs were offered as a Peace Offering, and all were waved before Jehovah, and given to the priests; the leaves being leavened, could not be offered on the altar.
The other sacrifices were, a Burnt Offering of a young bullock, two rams, and seven lambs, with a meat and drink offering, and a kid for a Sin Offering. Lev 23:18-19. Till the Pentecostal, leaves were offered, the produce of the harvest might not be eaten, nor could any other firstfruits be offered. The whole ceremony was the completion, of that dedication of the harvest, to God as its giver, and to whom both the land, and the people were holy, which was begun by the offering of the wave-sheaf at the Passover. The interval is still regarded as a religious season.
The Pentecost is the only one of the three great feasts, which is not mentioned as the memorial of events, in the history of the Jews; but such a significance has been found in the fact, that the law was given from Sinai, on the fiftieth day after the deliverance from Egypt. Compare Exodus 12 and Exodus 19. In the Exodus, the people were offered to God as living first fruits; at Sinai, their consecration to him as a nation was completed. The typical significance of the Pentecost is made clear, from the events of the day recorded, in the Acts of the Apostles. Acts 2. Just as the appearance of God on Sinai was the birthday of the Jewish nation, so was the Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian Church.
("fiftieth".)
"The feast of weeks" (a week of weeks between Passover and Pentecost), "the day of firstfruits." The sixth day of Sivan, lasting only one day; but the Jews in foreign countries have added a second day. Each of the two loaves was the tenth of an ephah (about three quarts and a half) of finest wheat flour. Waved Before Jehovah with a peace offering of the two lambs of the first year, and given to the priests. Seven lambs of the first year were sacrificed, one bullock and two rams as a burnt offering with meat and drink offering, and a kid sin offering. Each brought a free will offering. The Levite, stranger, fatherless, and widow were invited. As the Passover was a family gathering, Pentecost was a social feast. The people were reminded of their Egyptian bondage and of their duty to obey the law. The concourse at Pentecost was very great (Acts 2; Josephus Ant. 14:13, section 14, 17:10, section 2; B. J. 2:3, section 1). In Exo 23:16; Exo 23:19, "the first (i.e. chief) of the firstfruits" are the two wave loaves of Pentecost (Lev 23:17).
The omer offering at Passover was the prelude to the greater harvest offering at Pentecost, before which no other firstfruits could be offered. The interval between Pentecost and tabernacles was the time for offering firstfruits. The Jews called Pentecost "the concluding assembly of the Passover" (
Pentecost. Act 2:1. From a Greek word signifying fiftieth. The name in the New Testament for the second great festival of the Jews, called by them "the feast of weeks," or "the day of first-fruits." It was celebrated on the fiftieth day—hence the name—after the passover, reckoning from the second day of the passover—the 16th of Nisan—Lev 23:11; Lev 23:15, to the morrow after the end of the seventh week. Lev 23:15-16; Deu 16:9. It was originally a simple thanksgiving for the harvest, which in Palestine fell in the weeks between the passover and the pentecost. The festival was kept only for one day, and the principal rite consisted in the offering of two loaves made of the finest flour of the last crop’s wheat. In some branches of the Christian Church pentecost is celebrated seven weeks after Easter, in commemoration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples, as the birthday of the Christian Church. See Act 2:1-14
This name which signifies ’fiftieth’ is found only in the N.T.: it corresponds to the FEAST OF WEEKS. From the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits fifty days were counted, and on the day after the seven sabbaths the feast was kept. A new meat offering of two loaves baken with leaven was offered; also seven lambs, one bullock, and two rams for a burnt offering, with their meat and drink offerings "even an offering made by fire of sweet savour unto the Lord." Also one kid of the goats for a sin offering; and two lambs for a peace offering. It was proclaimed a holy convocation, in which no servile work was to be done. Lev 23:15-21. The Israelites came with their free-will offerings unto Jehovah, according as He had blessed them. See OFFERINGS.
The feast is typical of the presentation of the saints in the power and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. It was to be a day of universal rejoicing before the Lord, Deu 16:9-12, and was the commencement of the ingathering of the harvest. It is not mentioned in Ezekiel’s future feasts, because it has been fulfilled in the present interval in God’s dealings with Israel. Cf. Joh 7:37-39. See FEASTS.
PENTECOST (
Between these two national festivals came Pentecost. As Passover signalized the commencement of the grain harvest, Pentecost marked its conclusion; and as Tabernacles was a great national thanksgiving for the completed vintage and fruit harvest of the year, Pentecost was a thanksgiving for the completed grain harvest.
2. Agricultural basis.—The distinctive features of the ritual observed at Pentecost are those of a harvest thanksgiving. When barley harvest was begun at Passover time, the omer or sheaf was brought to the priest to he waved by him before the Lord; and this was followed by a burnt-offering of a ‘he-lamb without blemish of the first year,’ with appropriate meat-and drink-offerings (Lev 23:10-14). When the grain harvest which had been proceeding through the following seven weeks reached its completion at Pentecost and the thanksgiving celebration for it took place, a larger offering was prescribed. Instead of the omer of barley—whether presented in the sheaf or, as would appear from later practice, threshed and parched and made into flour—there were now two wave-loaves of the finest wheaten flour to be brought by the people out of their habitations and offered as a new meal-offering unto the Lord. In contrast to the Passover bread, which was unleavened, these two loaves, forming the peculiar offering of the Day of Pentecost, were ‘baken with leaven,’ which, as the Mishna informs us, was the case in all thank-offerings. These loaves are declared to be ‘the firstfruits unto the Lord’ (Lev 23:16-17), and formed with the peace-offering of two lambs the public thank-offering of the nation to God for His goodness. Instead of the single lamb of the Passover, there were now to be presented as a burnt-offering ‘seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams,’ with appropriate meat-and drink-offerings; whilst a kid of the goats was to be sacrificed as a sin-offering (Lev 23:18-19). It was in keeping with an occasion of national thanksgiving that freewill offerings were to be brought by the people, each as the Lord had prospered him: ‘And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among yon. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes’ (Deu 16:11-12). Although the festival proper, as we have seen, was confined to one day, it continued in a minor degree for a whole week, and was celebrated with gladness and rejoicing. All this made it peculiarly popular; and the season of the year being favourable, as we have seen, for travel, it seems from notices in Josephus, and from references in the Acts of the Apostles, to have been frequented by a large concourse of pilgrims from all the lands of the Jewish Dispersion. It is now the custom among the Jews to decorate the synagogue at Pentecost with trees and plants and flowers,—a modern substitute for the harvest festival of former times (see Jewish Encyc., art. ‘Pentecost’; Rosenau, Jewish Ceremonial Institutions, p. 86).
3. Historical reference.—Whilst the notices in the OT, mainly in the Pentateuch, regard Pentecost simply as a harvest festival, it came to be regarded among the. later Jews as commemorating the giving of the Law at Sinai. The Book of Jubilees, in the 1st cent. a.d. (Schürer, GJV
4. Antitypical significance—Giving of the Holy Spirit.—As the Passover has its antitype in the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, Pentecost has its antitype in the shedding down of the Holy Spirit, by whom the Law is written upon fleshy tables of the heart, and the bonds of intercourse between God and man are re-knit in a spiritual and enduring communion. St. Paul describes the Pentecostal gift as ‘the first-fruits of the Spirit’ (Rom 8:23), in accordance with the purpose of the day. Of this momentous event we have the record in Acts 2. If in Jewish tradition the first Pentecost after the great deliverance from Egypt was, through the giving of the Law, the birthday of Judaism, in Christian history the first Pentecost after the true Passover Lamb had been slain was, through the outpouring of the Spirit, the birthday of the Church. The presence and working of the Spirit within the Church form the distinctive characteristic of Christianity. Gracious and beneficent as was the presence of the Master with His disciples, it was better, so He Himself declared, that He should go away (Joh 16:7), and that in His stead the Paraclete, with His threefold conviction for the world, should come (Joh 16:8-11). ‘Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you,’ said Jesus to the Eleven and them that were gathered with them as He was about to ascend up into heaven; ‘but tarry ye in the city till ye be endued with power from on high’ (Luk 24:49). Then, as the Evangelist records, He led them out until they were over against Bethany; and while His hands were lifted up in blessing, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. ‘And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, blessing God’ (Luk 24:52-53).
The Temple was the chief resort of the disciples, during the period of tarrying which their Master had enjoined; but they continued also to frequent the Upper Room, now hallowed to them by its memories of the Lord (Act 1:13 f.), continuing ‘steadfastly in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.’ And so they waited and prayed; and, lest anything should be lacking to their readiness for the promised blessing, they filled up, by the questionable arbitrament of the lot, the place in the number of the Twelve rendered vacant by the fall of Judas. It was now the eve of the second return of the Resurrection-day since the Lord had ascended, and the city was crowded and astir with the pilgrim bands which had come up to Jerusalem for the great annual harvest thanksgiving. No doubt they had counted the days; and they may well have divined that on Pentecost, the fiftieth day since their Lord had suffered as the Passover Lamb, their expectations would be fulfilled (Baumgarten, Apostolic History, i. p. 41).
‘The day of Pentecost was now come,’ and at an early hour the disciples, filled with anticipations awakened by the day, were all together in one place. That this place was the Temple seems natural, considering the occasion. It is a fair inference from the passage in St. Luke already quoted (Luk 24:52-53), and it harmonizes with the statement that ‘the multitude came together’ (Act 2:6) when the descent of the Spirit became known abroad. It is said that the sound heard from heaven filled ‘all the house’ (
To those praying disciples, and to the Church of which they were the representatives, came on that eventful day the fulfilment of ‘the promise of the Father.’ Suddenly a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind fell upon the ears of the expectant band, and filled all the house where they were sitting. It does not appear that there was an actual wind, but only the sound of it pervading all parts of the house. Then, as they looked around, they beheld tongues like as of fire distributing themselves through the building, and alighting each upon a disciple’s head. ‘And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.’ ‘They were all filled with the Holy Spirit’ is the supreme and enduring blessing of Pentecost. It is the central fact of this remarkable narrative. Side by side with the Incarnation, and the Atonement, and the Resurrection, and the Ascension of the Lord, stands the Mission of the Comforter in the gospel scheme. As the Mosaic dispensation was inaugurated with miracles and supernatural signs, it was meet that the dispensation which replaced it should likewise be ushered in with miraculous manifestations.
These manifestations must be briefly noticed. Wind and fire are elemental emblems of the Spirit occurring from time to time in the OT. ‘He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire’ (Mat 3:11) was the Baptist’s prediction concerning the Messiah, now clearly fulfilled. ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth … so is every one that is born of the Spirit’ (Joh 3:8), was the Lord’s own shadowing forth of the Sprit’s power to Nicodemus.
To the miraculous associations of Pentecost belong the ‘tongues’ with which the Apostles spake. Not unknown tongues, however, nor such ecstatic utterances as became familiar afterwards at Corinth and in the early Church, but tongues in which the strangers from distant countries, who had come to Jerusalem for the Feast, at once recognized their own speech, and heard the mighty works of God proclaimed. That the gift of tongues was a permanent endowment of the Apostles for their great work of proclaiming redemption to all the kindred of mankind, cannot be maintained. There is no proof that any of the Apostles of whose labours we have a record in the Acts was thus saved the trouble of acquiring foreign tongues, and supplied with the linguistic qualifications necessary for ministering to people of other races than their own. In fact, within the Roman world of that day such tongues were by no means indispensable. The Roman world, whithersoever the Apostles went on their missionary journeys, was to all intents and purposes of one speech, and they could make themselves understood in Greek in almost every ordinary case. It was only when they travelled to the far East, or to the bounds of the West, or away up the Nile, that their message required another tongue. The Jews who had come to the Feast at Jerusalem, or perhaps, as was the case with some, were sojourners in the Holy City, from out of every nation under heaven, recognized at once the vernacular of the several peoples among whom they were scattered—the tongue of Parthia, of Mesopotamia, of Phrygia, of Egypt, of Arabia—on the lips of one or other of the Apostles; but Greek was yet the lingua franca by which they could almost everywhere make themselves understood. ‘The tongues’ served the immediate purpose on this historic occasion of conveying to the assembled multitudes the great facts of the completed redemption, in familiar speech, yet with unwonted impressiveness and solemnity. But they were, over and above this, a supernatural sign, not only affording a striking proof at the moment of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit with the Apostles, but also furnishing a symbol of the universality of the new faith, and pointing forward to the proclamation of the glad tidings of great joy to all the families of mankind. Thus the legend of the giving of the Law in seventy languages on Mt. Sinai was matched by the fact of ‘the tongues’ at Pentecost; and the preaching of the gospel, first in all the lands of the Jewish Dispersion and then in all the earth, was emphatically shown forth.
5. Abiding significance.—The gift of tongues which marked the effusion of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was only one of several extraordinary gifts bestowed at first upon the Church by the Ascended Lord. These gifts continued through the Apostolic Age, and were not only varied in their character, but wholly distinct from the ordinary quickening, sanctifying, and ministerial gifts which abide in the Church through all her history. They have passed away, and though in an Edward Irving and other saintly and gifted souls some of them may seem for a little while to reappear, it is His gifts of quickening, sanctifying, and enabling that are the abiding blessing of the Holy Spirit to the Church, and that perpetuate the grace of Pentecost. The permanent blessing is not for a few, but for all believers. The Spirit had at the Creation brooded over the face of the deep; He had moved holy men to utter the oracles of God; He had rested upon anointed kings, like Saul and David; and He had dwelt without measure in the Incarnate Son of God. Now the blessing was to be for all. ‘They were all filled with the Holy Ghost,’ is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel (Joe 2:28-29). It is the realization also of our Lord’s promise (Joh 7:37-39). And St. Peter in his discourse to the multitudes on the day of Pentecost confirms the universality of the gift (Act 2:38-39).
Whilst the experience of the disciples on the day of Pentecost shows the universality of the gift, it also attests the working of a new power of spiritual quickening and transformation. The Apostles themselves were transformed into new men. By the baptism of fire they were made courageous and brave; their eyes were opened to see the spirituality of Christ’s Kingdom; and they were filled with a great enthusiasm for the salvation of men through the preaching of the crucified Christ. And such was the power of the Spirit accompanying St. Peter’s words, that the multitude who had assembled to see and to hear were pricked to the heart, and cried, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ And with three thousand souls added to the little band of Apostles and believers, a Church was born in a day. ‘With great power gave the apostles witness,’ and that power was the gift of the Holy Ghost. Under the working of the Pentecostal gift a new spirit of love takes possession of them that believe, a new fellowship is established, a new service and varied ministry instituted. Throughout the course of the Church’s history it has been the mission of the Comforter to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; to glorify Christ to His believing people; to lead the Church into all truth, and to show her things to come; to sanctify them that believe; and to bestow grace upon all who serve in any ministry according to the requirement of the office which they fill. It is His mission still; and the great hope of the Church and of the world lies in the renewal of Pentecost, with its breath of refreshing and its tongue of fire, in each successive age.
Literature,—Besides the works mentioned above, see the Comm. on Acts 2, the articles ‘Pentecost.’ ‘Feasts,’ ‘Pfingstfest,’ ‘Wochenfest’ in the Encyclopaedias and Bible Dictionaries; Benzinger’s Heb. Arch.; Mackie’s Bible Manners and Customs; Farrar, St. Paul, i. 83–104; Expositor, i. i. [1875], 393–408; William Arthur, The Tongue of Fire.
T. Nicol.
("fiftieth"):
By: Kaufmann Kohler, J. L. Magnus, Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., Judah David Eisenstein
Name given by the Greek-speaking Jews to the festival which occurred fifty days (
Connection with Harvest.
In Palestine the grain harvest lasted seven weeks and was a season of gladness (Jer. v. 24; Deut. xvi. 9; Isa. ix. 2). It began with the harvesting of the barley (Men. 65-66) during the Passover and ended with the harvesting of the wheat at Pentecost, the wheat being the last cereal to ripen. Pentecost was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest, just as the eighth day of Tabernacles was the concluding festival of the fruit harvest (comp. Pesiḳ. xxx. 193). According to Ex. xxxiv. 18-26 (comp. ib. xxiii. 10-17), the Feast of Weeks is the second of the three festivals to be celebrated by the altar dance of all males at the sanctuary. They are to bring to the sanctuary "the first-fruits of wheat harvest," "the first-fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field." These are not offerings definitely prescribed for the community; "but with a tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand . . . shalt thou [the individual] rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter, . . . the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow" (Deut. xvi. 9-12). In Lev. xxiii. 15-22, however, there is a regularly appointed first-fruit offering which the whole community must bring. It consists of two first-fruit loaves ("leḥem ha-bikkurim") of new meal, of two-tenths of an ephah, baked with leaven. The loaves were to be waved; hence the name "wave-loaves" ("leḥem tenufah"). Furthermore, various animal sacrifices were enjoined, and no work was permitted. In Num. xxviii. 26-31 the main pentecostal offering is one of new meal ("minḥah ḥadashah"). There is also a list of grain and animal offerings differing somewhat from that in Lev.xxiii.15-22. These offerings are to be made in addition to the fixed daily offering. In Men. iv. 5, x. 4 the list of Leviticus is referred to the sacrifices directly connected with the loaves, and the Numbers list is referred to the sacrifices for Pentecost considered as a special festival; the one was designated for the journeyings in the desert; the other was added after the Israelites had entered the promised land. The concluding festival of the harvest weeks was largely attended (Josephus, l.c. xvii. 10, § 2; idem, "B. J." ii., iii. 1; Acts ii. 5).
K. J. L. M.—In Rabbinical Literature:
The festival is known in Mishnah and Talmud as "'Aẓeret" (
or 
), excepting in Megillah Ta'anit i., where 
(= "the Feast of Weeks") occurs, which is explained as meaning "'Aẓeret." "'Aẓeret" is usually translated a "solemn assembly," meaning the congregation at the pilgrimage festivals. The name is applied also to Passover (Deut. xvi. 8) and to Sukkot (Lev. xxiii. 36). Ibn Ezra thinks "'Aẓeret" denotes a holy day, a day of rest and cessation from work (comp. 
= "detained," I Sam. xxi. 7). In post-Talmudic and geonic literature the Biblicalname "Shabu'ot" was resumed. Pentecost falls on the 6th of Siwan and never occurs on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. Outside of Palestine the Orthodox Jews have since the exilic period celebrated the following day also, as "the second day of Shabu'ot." Pentecost is the fiftieth day of 'Omer, beginning from the second day of Passover. During the existence of the Temple the first-fruits were offered as well as a sacrifice of two loaves of bread from the new harvest, etc. (Lev. xxiii. 15-21).
"The Morrow After Sabbath."
Regarding the Biblical commandment to offer the 'omer "on the morrow after the Sabbath" = 
(ib. verse 11), the Rabbis maintained that "Sabbath" here means simply a day of rest and refers to Passover. The Sadducees (Boethusians) disputed this interpretation, contending that "Sabbath" meant "Saturday." Accordingly they would transfer the count of "seven weeks" from the morrow of the first Saturday in Passover, so that Pentecost would always fall on Sunday. The Boethusians advanced the argument "because Moses, as a friend of the Israelites, wished to give them an extended holy day by annexing Pentecost to the Sabbath." Johanan then turned to his disciples and pointed out that the Law purposely fixed the interval of fifty days in order to explain that the seven weeks, nominally, do not necessarily begin from Sunday (Men. 65a, b). See also Pharisees.
Some claim that this controversy was the reason for the substitution by the Talmudists of "'Aẓeret" for "Shabu'ot" or "Weeks," on which the Sadducees, and later the Karaites in the geonic period, based their adverse contention. Another reason might be to avoid confusion with "shebu'ot" = "oaths." The Septuagint translation
The Cabalists and Pentecost.
The traditional festival of Pentecost as the birthday of the Torah (
= "the time our Law was given"), when Israel became a constitutional body and "a distinguished people," remained the sole celebration after the Exile. The Shabu'ot prayers and Maḥzor have references to this and particularly to the precepts deduced from the Pentateuch. The cabalists arranged a special "tiḳḳun" for Pentecost eve, consisting of excerpts from the beginning and end of every book of the Bible and Mishnah, which abridgment they considered tantamount to the reading of the complete works, and accepted as the approval of the Law. Apparently the custom of studying the Law all night of Pentecost is old (Zohar, Emor, 98a); but there is no record of the practise prior to the Safed cabalists headed by Isaac Luria in the sixteenth century. The custom has since been observed in the eastern states of Europe, and particularly in the Orient.
Tiḳḳun Lel Shabu'ot.
The reading occupies the pious till morning; others finish it at midnight. The collection is called "Tiḳḳun Lel Shabu'ot" (="Preparation for Pentecost Eve"; comp. the "Tiḳḳun Lel Hosha'na Rabbah" for Tabernacles). The Pentateuch reading contains three to seven verses from the beginning and the end of every "parashah" ("sidra"). Some of the important sections are read in full, as follows: the days of Creation (Gen. i. 1-ii. 3); the Exodus and the song at the Red Sea (Ex. xiv. 1-xv. 27); the giving of the Decalogue on Mount Sinai (ib. xviii. 1-xx. 26, xxiv. 1-18, xxxiv. 27-35; Deut. v. 1-vi. 9); the historical review and part of "Shema'" (ib. x. 12-xi. 25). The same method is used with the excerpts from the Prophets: the important ch. i. of Ezekiel (the "Merkabah") is read in full. The Minor Prophets are considered as one book: the excerpts are from Hos. i.1-3, Hab. ii. 20-iii. 19, and Mal. iii. 22-24 (A. V. iv. 4-6). Ruth is read in full; and of the Psalms, Ps. i., xix., lxviii., cxix., cl. The order of the twenty-four books of the Scriptures is different from the accepted one: probably it is an ancient order, as follows: (Torah) Five Books of Moses; (Prophets) Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; (Minor Prophets) [Hagiographa] Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Chronicles, Ezra = 24 books. Next, the excerpts from mishnayyot are read, the beginning and end of every treatise, in all sixty-three, with some important chapters in extenso; next, the "Sefer Yeẓirah"; the 613 precepts as enumerated by Maimonides (see Commandments, The 613). Later, excerpts from the Zohar bearing on the subject were added, with opening and concluding prayers. The whole reading is divided into thirteen parts, after each of which a "Ḳaddish di-Rabbanan" is recited.
The Zohar calls the time between Passover and Pentecost the "courting days of the bridegroom Israel with the bride Torah." Those who participate in the tiḳḳun celebration are the Temple-men = "
of the King [God]." The Zohar has two epigrams on Pentecost: (1) "In the twin month [zodiac sign of Gemini] the twin Law [written and oral] was given to the children of twin Israel [Jacob and Esau]." (2) "In the third month [Siwan] the treble Law [Pentateuch, Prophets, and Hagiographa] was given to the third [best] people" (Zohar, Yitro, 78b).
Because the Law was given on Pentecost, the Rabbis wished to make that day the most enjoyable holy day. R. Joseph ordered a third (best) calf for the festival, saying: "Were it not for this day how many Josephs would there be in the street!" ("without the Law there would be no distinction of scholarship," Pes. 68b). A popular custom on Pentecost is to eat dairy foods and cheese-cakes in honor of the Law, which is likened to "honey and milk" (Cant.iv. 11). The meat meal follows the milk meal. These two meals represent the two loaves of bread, formerly offered in the "bikkurim" offering at the Temple service.
In the synagogue the scroll of Ruth is read because the story of Ruth embracing Judaism and the description of the scene of harvesting are appropriate to the festival of the Law and of the harvest. Another reason given is that King David, a descendant of Ruth, died on Pentecost ("Sha'are Teshubah" to Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 494).
Floral Decorations and Confirmation.
The custom widely prevails of displaying greens on the floors and of otherwise decorating the home and the synagogue with plants, flowers, and even with trees. The greens serve to remind one of the green mountain of Sinai; the trees, of the judgment day for fruit-trees on Pentecost (R. H. i. 2); they also commemorate the harvest festival of former times.
The rite of confirmation for Jewish girls in the synagogue on Pentecost was introduced by the Reform party. This festival was selected because it was the birthday of Judaism. The story of Ruth's recognition of the Jewish religion gives color to the exercise (see Confirmation).
The exact day on which the Law was given is, however, in dispute. The Rabbis say it was the 6th of Siwan; according to R. Jose it was the 7th of that month. All agree that the Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Sinai on the new moon (Ex. xix. 1), and that the Decalogue was given on the following Saturday. But the question whether the new-moon day fell on Sunday or Monday is undecided (Shab. 86b).
The three days preceding Pentecost are called "the three days of the bounds" (
) to commemorate the incident of the three days' preparation before Mount Sinai (Ex. xix. 11, 12). These days are distinguished by the permission of marriage celebrations, which are prohibited on the other days of Sefirah save Lag be-'Omer and Rosh-Ḥodesh. See Aḳdamut; First-Fruits; Flowers in the Home and the Synagogue; Law, Reading from the; Pilgrimages to the Holy Land; Prayer.
Bibliography:
Halakot Gedolot, ed. Berlin, 1888, i. 146;
Shulḥan 'Aruk, Oraḥ Hayyim, 494;
Der Jude, pp. 42-48. Leipsic, 1769;
Hebrew Review, ii. 152-157;
Addresses to Young Children, xxi. 189-201, London, 1858;
Friedländer, Jewish Religion, pp. 393-394, 2d ed., London, 1900;
Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. xiv. 64. For the interpretation of "the morrow after Sabbath": Aaron of Nicomedia (Karaite), Keter Torah, Lev. 65a, Eupatoria, 1866;
Pinsker, Liḳḳuṭe Ḳadmoniyyot, Appendix, p. 96;
Cusari, iii. 41;
Lichtenstadt, Ḳunṭros mi-Moḥorot ha-Shabbat, Vienna, 1860;
Gottlober, Biḳḳorotle-Toledot ha-Ḳara'im, p. 84, Wilna, 1865;
Ha-Maggid, 1840, iv., No. 40; 1879, xxiii., No. 22;
Frankel, Vorstudien zu der Septuaginta, pp. 190-191, Leipsic, 1841;
Geiger, Urschrift, p. 138, Breslau, 1857;
Wellhausen, Pharisäer und Sadducäer, p. 59, Bamberg, 1874.
E. C. J. D. E.According to the Sects. —Critical View:
In the Old Testament the exact day of the celebration of Pentecost is not given. It is seen from Ex. xxiii. 10-17, xxxiv. 18 that it was celebrated some time in the late spring or the early summer. In Deut. xvi. 9 (R. V.) the date is given "seven weeks from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing corn." In Lev. xxiii. 15, 16 the date is more definitely given: "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days." The meaning of the word "Sabbath" in the phrase "after the Sabbath" ("mimoḥorat ha-Shabbat") and, consequently, the question as to the day upon which the Pentecost was to fall have constituted a chief point of difference between Jewish sects (comp. Charles, "The Book of Jubilees," vi. 22, 32; xvi. 3). Sabbath may mean either a "festival" (Lev. xxv. 2, 46) or the weekly Sabbath. In the general sense of "festival" the day of bringing the sheaf of the wave-offering ("yom ḥanef"), i.e., "the day after the Sabbath," would mean the day after either the first or the last day of Passover. (a) That the "Sabbath" in this case means the first day of Passover is the view of the Septuagint, Targ. pseudo-Jonathan, Targ. Onḳelos, Josephus ("Ant." iii. 10, § 5), Philo ("De Septenario," § 20; comp. Ḥag. ii. 4, Men. vi. 1-3), and of the later rabbinic literature. Since, according to this view, the sheaf-offering was waved on the 16th of Nisan, Pentecost, fifty days later, was celebrated on the 6th of Siwan without regard to the day of the week on which that fell. (b) That the "Sabbath," according to the general meaning "festival," signifies the seventh day of Passover, i.e., 21st of Nisan, without regard to the day of the week, is the view of the Falashas of Abyssinia, the Syriac version of Lev. xxiii. 11, 15, and the Book of Jubilees (c. 135 B.C.). The "day after the Sabbath" is, accordingly, the 22d of Nisan. The Falashas reckon fifty days according to a system of months alternating thirty and twenty-nine days, the Feast of Weeks thus falling on Siwan 12. In Jubilees the Feast of Weeks and Feast of First-Fruits of the Harvest are celebrated on Siwan 15 (Jubilees, xvi. 1, xliv. 4). Reckoning fifty days backward, with an ecclesiastical month of twenty-eight days, one arrives at Nisan 22 as the date when the wave-sheaf was offered. (c) The term "Sabbath," as is shown above, was taken to mean also the weekly Sabbath.
Association with the Giving of the Law.
It is difficult to determine whether the controversy as to the date of the celebration of Pentecost was merely a question of calendation or whether it had its origin in the attempt to assign to the festival a historical motive such as was lacking in the Old Testament. Just as Passover and Tabernacles were associated with historical events, so Pentecost was brought together with the day on which the Torah was given on Sinai (Ex. R. xxxi.; Shab. 88a; Pes. 68b; Maimonides, "Moreh," iii. 41; comp. Ex. xix. 1). That this association had something to do with the calendar controversy would seem to follow from the fact that both Philo and Josephus make no mention of either the giving of the Law on that day or of the calendar dispute. Some insight into the origin of this association of Pentecost with the giving of the Law is afforded by Jubilees where the covenant with Noah as regards the eating of blood is made on the Feast of Weeks. This covenant is renewed with Abraham and with Moses on the same day. Itneeded but a step for later times to place the covenant on Sinai also on the same day.
According to Jubilees, Isaac was born (xvi. 13), Abraham died (xxii. 1), Judah was born (xxviii. 15), and Jacob and Laban bound themselves by mutual vows (xxix. 7) on the Feast of Weeks. See Jew. Encyc. v. 374b, s.v. Festivals (Shabu'ot). The relation of the Jewish to the Christian Pentecost with its pouring out of the spirit as an analogy to the giving the Law in seventy languages is obvious.
Bibliography:
Charles, The Book of Jubilees, London, 1902;
Frankel, Einfluss der Palästinensischen Exegese auf die Alexandrinische Hermeneutik, pp. 136-137, Leipsic, 1851.
(Greek: pentecostes, fiftieth)
Feast which commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, and takes its name from the fact that it comes nearly fifty days after Easter. It was a Jewish festival, and has been observed in the Christian Church since the days of the Apostles. It is often called Whitsunday (White Sunday) from the practise of giving solemn Baptism on that day in early centuries, the candidates being attired in white baptismal robes.
A feast of the universal Church which commemorates the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ, on the ancient Jewish festival called the "feast of weeks" or Pentecost (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10). Whitsunday is so called from the white garments which were worn by those who were baptised during the vigil; Pentecost ("Pfingsten" in German), is the Greek for "the fiftieth" (day after Easter).Whitsunday, as a Christian feast, dates back to the first century, although there is no evidence that it was observed, as there is in the case of Easter; the passage in I Corinthians (16:8) probably refers to the Jewish feast. This is not surprising, for the feast, originally of only one day’s duration, fell on a Sunday; besides it was so closely bound up with Easter that it appears to be not much more than the termination of Paschal tide. That Whitsunday belongs to the Apostolic times is stated in the seventh of the (interpolated) fragments attributed to St. Irenæus. In Tertullian (De bapt., xix) the festival appears as already well established. The Gallic pilgrim gives a detailed account of the solemn manner in which it was observed at Jerusalem ("Peregrin. Silviæ", ed. Geyer, iv). The Apostolic Constitutions (V, xx, 17) say that Pentecost lasts one week, but in the West it was not kept with an octave until at quite a late date. It appears from Berno of Reichenau (d. 1048) that it was a debatable point in his time whether Whitsunday ought to have an octave. At present it is of equal rank with Easter Sunday. During the vigil formerly the catechumens who remained from Easter were baptized, consequently the ceremonies on Saturday are similar to those on Holy Saturday.The office of Pentecost has only one Nocturn during the entire week. At Terce the "Veni Creator" is sung instead of the usual hymn, because at the third hour the Holy Ghost descended. The Mass has a Sequence, "Veni Sancte Spiritus" the authorship of which by some is ascribed to King Robert of France. The colour of the vestments is red, symbolic of the love of the Holy Ghost or of the tongues of fire. Formerly the law courts did not sit during the entire week, and servile work was forbidden. A Council of Constance (1094) limited this prohibition to the first three days of the week. The Sabbath rest of Tuesday was abolished in 1771, and in many missionary territories also that of Monday; the latter was abrogated for the entire Church by Pius X in 1911. Still, as at Easter, the liturgical rank of Monday and Tuesday of Pentecost week is a Double of the First Class.In Italy it was customary to scatter rose leaves from the ceiling of the churches to recall the miracle of the fiery tongues; hence in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy Whitsunday is called Pascha rosatum. The Italian name Pascha rossa comes from the red colours of the vestments used on Whitsunday. In France it was customary to blow trumpets during Divine service, to recall the sound of the mighty wind which accompanied the Descent of the Holy Ghost. In England the gentry amused themselves with horse races. The Whitsun Ales or merrymakings are almost wholly obsolete in England. At these ales the Whitsun plays were performed. At Vespers of Pentecost in the Oriental Churches the extraordinary service of genuflexion, accompanied by long poetical prayers and psalms, takes place. (Cf. Maltzew, "Fasten-und Blumen Triodion", p. 898 where the entire Greco-Russian service is given; cf. also Baumstark, "Jacobit. Fest brevier", p. 255.) On Pentecost the Russians carry flowers and green branches in their hands.----------------------------------- KELNEER, Heortology (St. Louis, 1908); HAMPSON, Medii viæ kalendarium, I (London, 1841) 280 sqq.; BRAND-ELLIS, Popular Antiquities, I (London, 1813), 26 sqq.; NILLES, Kalendarium Manuale, II (Innsbruck, 1897), 370 sqq.F.G. HOLWECK Transcribed by Wm Stuart French, Jr. Dedicated to Brenda Eileen Metcalfe French The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
1. In the Old Testament:
As the name indicates (
The Old Testament does not give it the historical significance which later Jewish writers have ascribed to it. The Israelites were admonished to remember their bondage on that day and to reconsecrate themselves to the Lord (Deu 16:12), but it does not yet commemorate the giving of the Law at Sinai or the birth of the national existence, in the Old Testament conception (Ex 19). Philo, Josephus, and the earlier Talmud are all ignorant of this new meaning which was given to the day in later Jewish history. It originated with the great Jewish rabbi Maimonides and has been copied by Christian writers. And thus a view of the Jewish Pentecost has been originated, which is wholly foreign to the scope of the ancient institution.
2. In the New Testament:
The old Jewish festival obtained a new significance, for the Christian church, by the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joh 16:7, Joh 16:13). The incidents of that memorable day, in the history of Christianity, are told in a marvelously vivid and dramatic way in the Acts of the Apostles. The old rendering of
The occurrences of the first pentecostal day after the resurrection of Christ set it apart as a Christian festival and invested it, together with the commemoration of the resurrection, with a new meaning. We will not enter here upon a discussion of the significance of the events of the pentecostal day described in Acts 2. That is discussed in the article under TONGUES (which see). The Lutherans, in their endeavor to prove the inherent power of the Word, claim that “the effects then exhibited were due to the divine power inherent in the words of Christ; and that they had resisted that power up to the day of Pentecost and then yielded to its influence.” This is well described as “an incredible hypothesis” (Hodge, Systematic Theology, III, 484). The Holy Spirit descended in answer to the explicit promise of the glorified Lord, and the disciples had been prayerfully waiting for its fulfillment (Act 1:4, Act 1:14). The Spirit came upon them as “a power from on high.” God the Holy Spirit proved on Pentecost His personal existence, and the intellects, the hearts, the lives of the apostles were on that day miraculously changed. By that day they were fitted for the arduous work that lay before them. There is some difference of opinion as to what is the significance of Pentecost for the church as an institution. The almost universal opinion among theologians and exegetes is this: that Pentecost marks the rounding of the Christian church as an institution. This day is said to mark the dividing line between the ministry of the Lord and the ministry of the Spirit. The later Dutch theologians have advanced the idea that the origin of the church, as an institution, is to be found in the establishment of the apostolate, in the selection of the Twelve. Dr. A. Kuyper holds that the church as an institution was founded when the Master selected the Twelve, and that these men were “qualified for their calling by the power of the Holy Spirit.” He distinguishes between the institution and the constitution of the church. Dr. H. Bavinck says: “Christ gathers a church about Himself, rules it directly so long as He is on the earth, and appoints twelve apostles who later on will be His witnesses. The institution of the apostolate is an especially strong proof of the institutionary character which Christ gave to His church on the earth” (Geref. Dogm., IV, 64).
Whatever we may think of this matter, the fact remains that Pentecost completely changed the apostles, and that the enduement with the Holy Spirit enabled them to become witnesses of the resurrection of Christ as the fundamental fact in historic Christianity, and to extend the church according to Christ’s commandment. Jerome has an especially elegant passage in which Pentecost is compared with the beginning of the Jewish national life on Mt. Sinai (Ad Tabiol, section 7): “There is Sinai, here Sion; there the trembling mountain, here the trembling house; there the flaming mountain, here the flaming tongues; there the noisy thunderings, here the sounds of many tongues; there the clangor of the ramshorn, here the notes of the gospel-trumpet.” This vivid passage shows the close analogy between the Jewish and Christian Pentecost.
3. Later Christian Observance:
In the post-apostolic Christian church Pentecost belonged to the so-called “Semestre Domini,” as distinct from the “Semestre Ecclesiae” the church festivals properly so called. As yet there was no trace of Christmas, which began to appear about 360 AD. Easter, the beginning of the pentecostal period, closed the “Quadragesima,” or “Lent,” the entire period of which had been marked by self-denial and humiliation. On the contrary, the entire pentecostal period, the so-called “Quinquagesima,” was marked by joyfulness, daily communion, absence of fasts, standing in prayer, etc. Ascension Day, the 40th day of the period, ushered in the climax of this joyfulness, which burst forth in its fullest volume on Pentecost. It was highly esteemed by the Fathers. Chrysostom calls it “the metropolis of the festivals” (De Pentec., Hom. ii); Gregory of Nazianzen calls it “the day of the Spirit” (De Pentec., Orat. 44). All the Fathers sound its praises. For they fully understood, with the church of the ages, that on that day the dispensation of the Spirit was begun, a dispensation of greater privileges and of a broader horizon and of greater power than had hitherto been vouchsafed to the church of the living God. The festival “Octaves,” which, in accordance with the Jewish custom, devoted a whole week to the celebration of the festival, from the 8th century, gave place to a two days’ festival, a custom still preserved by the Roman church and such Protestant bodies as follow the ecclesiastical year. The habit of dressing in white and of seeking baptism on Pentecost gave it the name “Whitsunday,” by which it is popularly known all over the world.
So far as canonical Scripture is concerned, it is only in the NT that we meet with this name, and that in three places-Act_2:1; Act_20:15, 1Co_16:8. We also find it in Tob_2:1 : ‘in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks’; and in 2Ma_12:31 f.: ‘the feast of weeks being close at hand. But after the feast called Pentecost …’ In the last two instances the explanatory language reminds us that the term was comparatively new and came into use among the Greek-speaking Jews. Among Christian writers, Tertullian (c._ a.d. 200) apparently is the first to use it as the name of a Christian festival (de Idol. 14). He simply took it over from the Greek as already used in the LXX_ and NT.
1. The name ‘Pentecost’ (ἡ ðåíôçêïóôÞ).-It is hardly necessary to add sc. ἑïñôÞ or ἡìÝñá, as the word had already hardened into a proper name. It was so used by St. Paul in 1Co_16:8 (ἕùò ôῆò ðåíôçêïóôῆò). It is therefore an unnecessary refinement to translate it in the NT, with R. F. Weymouth, ‘the Harvest Festival’ (The NT in Modern Speech3, London, 1909, ad loc.), or, still more cumbrously, with The 20th Century NT2, London, 1904, ‘the Festival at the close of the Harvest.’ Pentecost was the feast of the fiftieth day. It is a colourless name, and, unlike ‘Passover or Unleavened Bread’ and ‘Tabernacles or Booths,’ it reveals nothing as to the nature of the festival itself. This is the case also with the Hebrew name, ‘feast of weeks (ḥag shâbu‛ôth),’ generally given to this festival (Exo_34:22, Deu_16:10). It is true, the feast is also termed ‘the feast of harvest’ (Exo_23:16), and, further, Exo_34:22 adds ‘of the firstfruits of wheat harvest’; whilst, again, Num_28:26 calls it ‘the day of firstfruits.’ At a very much later date the Jews gave to this festival the name of ḥag ha‛aẓereth or ‛aẓarta’ (Aram.), a term which in earlier times was applied to the concluding festivities of Passover and Tabernacles (Lev_23:36, Num_29:35, etc.; in EVV_ ‘a solemn assembly’). Apparently it applied to Pentecost as the feast which marked the conclusion of the harvest. The Gr. ἀóáñèÜ (a transliteration) betrayed Josephus into the error of supposing that this term itself meant Pentecost (Ant. III. x. 6). But the far more common name was the Feast of Weeks, and later still, the Feast of Pentecost. Under the latter name it still denotes both the Jewish and the Christian festival.
2. Origin.-The name ‘Pentecost’ takes its origin from the very ancient custom of carefully counting the days from the second day of the Feast of Maẓẓôth according to the specific injunction of Lev_23:15 f., where the fifty days also are expressly mentioned. Although there has been much dispute as to the exact meaning of ‘the morrow after the sabbath,’ it is generally agreed to treat the 16th Nisan as the day when the wave-sheaf of early barley was offered and as the day when they began to ‘count the omer.’ So Jos. Ant. III. x. 5: ‘on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month.’ The term ‘omer’ = (a) sheaf, and (b) a measure of about 51/10 pints (dry), though the identity of the term in the two senses is uncertain. This, in turn, has given rise to the question whether ‘counting the omer’ refers to the sheaf or the measure. In the time of the Second Temple, it would seem that the meal rather than the corn-sheaf was the offering. Josephus (Ant. III. x. 5) is explicit on this point. Yet Leviticus 23 seems equally clear in intending a sheaf.
Be that as it may, in the Dispersion of Israel both the sheaf and the measure have long since ceased to have any significance; but the counting of the omer goes on still from Passover to Pentecost to the very eve of the feast (‘This is the forty-ninth day, making seven weeks of the Omer),’ and secures the regular observance of the feast. Every evening at prayers in the synagogue the counting duly takes place, with the addition of the formula: ‘Blessed art Thou, O Lord, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments, and hast given us command concerning the counting of the Omer.’ The brief ceremony closes with Psalms 67 and a prayer that ‘the temple may be speedily rebuilt in our days,’ and, with still the backward look, ‘there we will serve Thee with awe, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.’
Thus is retained a relic of a long-past day. When the Jews were a people settled in their own land, an agricultural people, it was a comparatively simple matter to keep the festival as the procession of the seasons went on year by year. The Feast of Maẓẓôth marked the opening of harvest with the early barley crop; the Feast of Weeks marked its close with the ingathering of the wheat; the Feast of Booths crowned the cycle with the gathering of the vintage and the ‘fruits of the land’ (Lev_23:39) in general. The climatic conditions of Palestine made those seasons timely and appropriate. The counting of the omer was a quaint expedient for enabling the farmers to appear at the central sanctuary at the appointed time for the Feast of Weeks. The primitive proclamation of new moon, which the authorities announced by messengers, who went through the land as soon as the faint sickle was seen in the sky, could not be relied upon in this instance. Those who dwelt in the borders of the little land would be belated. But all could count from ‘the morrow after the sabbath’ from the second day of Maẓẓôth, when the ceremony of waving the omer (of barley) took place. And all could arrange to appear on the appointed day at the end of seven weeks. But all this has long since become antiquated. The counting of the omer is entirely useless. Still the feast is celebrated in the synagogue for one day or two, but all that links it to the festival of the Pentateuch is the counting of the omer (though no omer has been ‘waved’), and such dim recollections of a harvest festival in Palestine as can be secured by dressing the synagogue with flowers.
Because the tokens of the actual observance of this feast are few and far between, some have argued a late origin for it. But the argumentum e silentio is always risky. What is settled and customary may go on for generations without remark. The Law at any rate was very explicit: ‘Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles’ (Deu_16:16). As an intermediary festival, however, and one lasting originally only for one day, there was an inevitable tendency to make the Feast of Weeks less conspicuous than the other two. Passover marked the beginning of harvest; Tabernacles celebrated the very crown and consummation of the year, when all the fruits of the earth had at length been gathered in; but Pentecost was a brief pause of joy and thankfulness for the close of harvest proper and the gathered store of ‘bread that strengtheneth man’s heart.’
This is seen especially in the dearth of commemorative matter associated with Pentecost. In connexion with Passover, e.g., in the course of time there gathered a considerable number of historical associations, not only with the Exodus, but with all sorts of other great happenings in Jewish history, with or without foundation. Afterwards, however, and at a late date, Pentecost was supplied with one notable historical association, and it became the festival at which the giving of the Law on Sinai was commemorated. The special lessons of the synagogue for Pentecost are all designed to glorify the Law. Once the connexion was made, Talmudic authorities had, by the use of ingenious methods of calculation, no difficulty in proving that this indeed was the very time when this august event took place (Exodus 19, 20). à This association persists after Pentecost becomes a Christian festival, and provokes the contrast which Keble makes the basis of his hymn for Whitsunday in the Christian Year (London, 1904, p. 120). But see also long before this Jerome (Ep. lxxviii., ‘ad Fabiolam’ [PL xxii.]).
In the few instances wherein we have historical reference to the Feast of Pentecost there is one noticeable thing: stress is laid on its being a time when crowds were gathered together at Jerusalem. Apparently in the 1st cent. a.d. the festival was well kept as a ḥag in accord with the ancient legislation. Josephus refers to it more than once (BJ_ II. iii. 1, VI. v. 3; Ant., III. x. 6, XIII. viii. 4, XIV. xiii. 4). In those days of growing distress and oncoming doom, indeed, he says that the adversaries of the Jews deliberately chose such times when crowds were gathered at Jerusalem to work them some mischief. ‘The enemy waited for the coming of the multitude out of the country to Pentecost, a feast of ours so called: and when the day was come, many ten thousands of the people were gathered together,’ etc. (Ant. XIV. xiii. 4).
3. The reference in Acts 2.-Time notes are few and far between in Acts, so that all the more precious is this clear note of the day when so momentous and auspicious an event took place. At any rate, there is complete agreement with the repeated testimony of Josephus as to the crowds of people who were at Jerusalem for the festival. With naïve hyperbole the author records the fact that there were at Jerusalem ‘devout men from every nation under heaven’ (Act_2:5). Not that all these were necessarily visitors who had come up expressly for the feast. It reflects for one thing the cosmopolitan character of the resident population of the city. Not a few devout Jews who were of the Diaspora found their way at last to Jerusalem to spend the remainder of their days in the vicinity of the Temple with all its privileges, and at length be buried in the land of their fathers. Perhaps also some were not without wistful hopes that the Messiah would appear. At all events, êáôïéêïῦíôåò (Act_2:5) suggests a more permanent residence than a mere sojourn. It is equally clear, however (Act_2:9, ïἱ êáôïéêïῦíôåò ôὴí Ìåóïðïôáìßáí, and Act_2:10, ïἱ ἐðéäçìïῦíôåò Ῥùíáῖïé) that there was also a crowd of genuine visitors who had come to keep the festival.
The author even ventures upon an enumeration of the several provinces and regions whence they had come (Act_2:9-11). It does not seem clear that he had any principle to go on in this enumeration, save that roughly he begins in what must have been to him the Far East (‘Parthians and Medes’) and ends with the West (‘sojourners from Rome’), and then adds, a little inconsequently, ‘Cretans and Arabians.’ It seems a little odd that ‘Judaea ’ should be named between ‘Mesopotamia’ and ‘Cappadocia,’ and gives rise to a question as to whether there has not been some misplacement or error in the name itself. If ‘Jews and proselytes’ (Act_2:10) is ‘a summarizing touch’ and the two types are mentioned as being ‘found in all the regions just enumerated’ (J. V. Bartlet, The Century Bible, ‘Acts,’ Edinburgh, 1901, ad loc.), it would be superfluous to mention that there were Jews in ‘Judaea.’ J. A. Bengel (Gnomon Novi Test., ad loc.) says that (for Judaea ) ‘Armeniam legit Augustinus: eaque inter Mesopotamiam Cappadociamque jacet,’ and rather inconclusively adds: ‘sed vetustam sane Armeniorum linguam sub alia quadam gente hic nominata innui existimare licet.’ It does not appear what authority Augustine had for this, but it witnesses to early uncertainty.
It does not follow that St. Luke is to be understood as giving a careful specification of the regions represented, and it is of little moment whether we consider the list as ‘an enumeration, not of languages but of provinces’ (Speaker’s Commentary, ‘St. John and the Acts,’ London, 1880, p. 363), or with Bartlet (loc. cit.) say with equal assurance, ‘the list is one of languages rather than geographical areas.’ For a comparison with Talmudic parallels see E. von Dobschütz, ‘Zu der Völkerliste Act_2:9-11,’ in ZWT_ x. [1902] 407-410.
Much has been said at one time and another as to the particular day of the week on which the Feast of Pentecost sensu eminenti fell. Did it really so happen that that day was ‘the first day of the week’? This depends on what day the 16th Nisan fell that year: and it is mixed up with the obscurity attending the day of our Lord’s death (see art._ Passover). It is after all a matter of inconsiderable importance. But we have the strong tradition that Jesus rose again on the first day of the week: and more than that, we have the undeniable fact that Sunday became the Christian weekly holy day on that very ground. That of itself makes Pentecost to fall on Sunday seven weeks later. We know as a matter of fact that the Christian Church in the course of time established this commemoration on the Lord’s Day as most fitting, whatever the actual day may have been, and we need not ask for more. In older Judaism Pentecost fell, like Passover, on all the days of the week as the case might be. A later usage has so far modified this as to avoid the observance of Pentecost on the third, fifth, or seventh days.
4. Nature of the event.-Much more important is the question as to what was the nature of the event which makes this day for ever memorable to the Christian. We must carefully discriminate between the wonder-element of the story, the strange and symbolic accompaniments, and the extraordinary change which most certainly marked the behaviour of the apostles as well as that of the first believers in general. It is, indeed, not impossible that so memorable an event should have been signalized actually by such phenomena as ‘a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind’ and ‘tongues parting asunder, like as of fire,’ and that all should have begun ‘to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance’ (Act_2:2-4). At the same time, it is impossible not to see a close parallel to the circumstances which had heralded the giving of the Law from Sinai, which, as we have seen, was commemorated at Pentecost. In the course of time Jewish midrash and legend had considerably heightened these conditions (Exo_19:16 ff.; cf. Heb_12:18 ff.) and had added such particulars as that at Sinai all nations had heard God’s voice in their own language and that voice could be heard as well by those farthest away as by those nearest the mount (see Midrash on Psa_68:11, and Philo, de Decalogo). The resemblance is close and could not well have been accidental. But whatever may be said as to the manner of the narrative, however much the writer may have drawn upon legendary matter in the setting of his story, the main thing is to remember that the underlying and undeniable experience is that which is of supreme importance. As C. von Weizsäcker says (Apostolic Age, Eng. tr._ i.2 [London, 1897] 50f.), the gift of prophecy ‘finds expression, though in a peculiar form, in the narrative of the Pentecost miracle, which he has placed in the forefront of his history. The import of this event is revealed in the speech of Peter (Act_2:14 ff.). It was the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy of the universal outpouring of the Spirit of God.… Now this is certainly the historical part of the narrative. The members of the Church felt the presence of the new spirit so strongly, … that they were confident of the fulfilment of Joes’s words in their own time.’ (On this and the whole subject of the glossolalia see art._ Tongues, Gift of.)
5. Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit.-Altogether too narrow and parochial a view has often been taken as to the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. A literalism which proceeds on the assumption that we have exhaustive information as to these events, and that all things actually occurred as they are described, has found itself again and again in sore straits when it has come to explaining precisely what happened. Thus, on the strength of an editorial note in the Fourth Gospel (Joh_7:39)-ïὔðù ãὰñ ἦí ðíåῦìá-coupled with some of our Lord’s utterances reported in the same Gospel (e.g. Joh_16:7), it has yielded but a grudging acknowledgment of the Spirit’s presence and power in the world prior to this event. But we should gladly see in every gracious movement of thought and every outflowering of beauty, virtue, and goodness whenscever and wherescever displayed, whether before the Incarnation or subsequent thereto, the working and manifestation of the same Spirit of love and light and power. That is quite compatible with giving full weight to Pentecost as ushering in a special manifestation of God’s Spirit and an era which was to be peculiarly characterized by the activities and energies of that Spirit in revealing and deepening what is Christ’s (ἐê ôïῦ ἐìïῦ ëÞìøåôáé êôë., Joh_16:14).
Among the Fathers, when they proceeded to explain the coming of the Holy Spirit as a new thing and in special connexion with Pentecost, there was a strong disposition to lay stress on the miraculous gifts and give them the chief place, an exegesis which later found too wide a vogue. ‘Visibilia illa dona, quae initio nascentis ecclesiae excellenter viguerunt’-so runs even Beza’s note. Moreover, they too often limited the Spirit’s dower to the apostles and their successors, a line of interpretation which at once went in flat opposition to the plain sense of Scripture and helped the development of a sacerdotal and sacramental view of ‘Orders.’ We meet with similar limitations still: ‘The Holy Ghost came upon the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost’ (T. B. Strong, A Manual of Theology2, London, 1903, p. 325). But the whole assembly of believers, if anything is clear, shared in the enduement of power which Pentecost witnessed, as they waited ‘all together in one place.’ (For ample quotations in support, see J. C. Hare, Mission of the Comforter4, London, 1877, Note H.)
Too much, indeed, may be made of such expressions as ‘coming,’ or ‘descent,’ of the Holy Spirit, as characterizing this day. It helps the perilous parcelling out of time and distinction of ‘dispensations’-the dispensations of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-which has found favour with many. This has little to commend it, is artificial, and can only be taken as generally signifying the progressive development of religion among men. Nor was Pentecost ‘the birthday of the Christian Church,’ as it is often called. ‘Birthday’ is an awkward term to use in such a connexion, and can be accepted only as a rough mode of indicating the beginning of the Christian community. But there was a church of a sort already existing (see Acts 1). The movement, in truth, did not lend itself easily to dates, and refused to be subjected to the precision and exactitude which mark the inauguration of merely human societies and institutions. This holy gift was bestowed on a church already in existence. ‘Pentecost was a day of power, a day on which the Spirit of God manifested himself through the disciples as a power for the conversion of others’ (A. C. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1897, p. 50).
6. Significance of Pentecost to the primitive Church.-The after course of events makes it clear that Pentecost was a turning-point of great significance in the career of the little community. The chief sign was power to give clear and bold testimony to the truth about Jesus Christ-a rich gift of prophetic grace. ‘As they waited and prayed, and pondered the sayings of the Master, and searched the OT Scriptures, the Truth flashed upon them-the Truth that was the Spirit’s teaching therein, blending with the words and memory of the Master. Suddenly the darkness of their souls was illumined by the inshining of this light from heaven, their hearts were filled with joy, and in the new exultant confidence that came to them, they were “clothed with power from on high” ’ (W. L. Walker, The Spirit and the Incarnation, Edinburgh, 1899, p. 67). Looking back from his then standpoint, the historian could not adequately account for the actually existing and widespread Church, save through some Divine enthusiasm kindled in men’s hearts by God indwelling and working in them with power and love. What could symbolize that ‘Breath of God’ more fittingly than the wind? What could more appropriately suggest the penetrative purifying power and grace than tongues ‘like as of fire’ (ὡóåὶ ðõñüò)? The miracle of Pentecost was that the little community should be transformed by the enduement of energy, illumination, and power, which is simply spoken of in the words: ‘And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.’ That was a work of grace which was repeatedly experienced in the Apostolic Church (Act_4:31), and has been witnessed since again and again. It is the mysterious outburst of a Power which never wholly leaves the world, however lifeless it may at times appear. As A. B. Bruce remarks, the Christian ‘believes in the Holy Ghost, and in His incessant struggle for the birth of a better world. He sees in the great crises of history His action as a mighty wind; in quiet times he traces His blessed presence and influence as a still, noiseless, yet vital air, the breath of human souls’ (Apologetics, Edinburgh, 1892, p. 69).
7. Pentecost as a Christian festival.-There is no sign whatever in the NT that the Church observed this season as a festival, or, as in the case of Passover, superimposed Christian associations on an ancient Hebrew feast. Epiphanius (4th cent.) interprets Act_20:16 as showing that St. Paul observed the feast, and either deliberately or loosely read into the text the verb ðïéÞóῃ (Ἔóðåõäåí, ὅðùò ðïéÞóῃ ôὴí Ðåíôçêïóôὴí åἰò ἹåñïõóáëÞì, quoted in J. Bingham, Antiquities, XX. vi. 6). (Truly it is a substantially different thing to hasten to Jerusalem to keep Pentecost from hurrying to be at Jerusalem at Pentecost.) St. Paul had little enough to do with keeping festivals. Pentecost here appears as a mere note of time. Bengel’s note ad loc. is to the point: ‘in festo, magni conventus: magna lucrifaciendi occasio.’
The 2nd cent. passes (a period fraught with all sorts of problems for the Church historians), and in Tertullian we find Pentecost definitely referred to as a Christian feast, familiar and established (de Idol. 14): ‘Non Dominicum diem, non Pentecosten, etiam si nossent, nobiscum communicassent; timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur.’ A few sentences later he speaks again of Pentecost not as one day but as a period-‘excerpe singulas solennitates nationum, et in ordinem exsere Pentecosten implere non poterunt’ (cf. also de Corona, 3). And from the time when the scheme of distinctive Christian festivals came to be developed it would appear that the whole fifty days elapsing between Easter and Pentecost were called by the latter name (Lat. Quinquagesima) and were regarded as a time of joy and happy commemoration (see R. Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, IV. xiii. 7-‘which fifty days were called Pentecost, though most commonly the last day of them which is Whitsunday be so called’).
So anciently among the Jews the ‘days of the Omer,’ as the period between Passover and Weeks was called, being a time of harvest operations, was a time of joy. It is food for thought, indeed, that the principal feasts of the Christian Church should be moulded on a system so parallel with that of the Jews. How strange, if indeed we have here a primitive reference to nature and the great yearly crises of springtime and harvest, in such climatic conditions as those of Palestine, that these should gather new associations sacred for the Jew, and again in turn gather very different associations rendering them sacred in Christian eyes!
Ultimately Pentecost was limited to the fiftieth day from Easter Day, though, still later, festivities tended to prolong themselves over the week following; hence ‘Whitsuntide,’ suggesting an extended festivity rather than one day. As connected especially with that effusion of the Holy Spirit which marked the beginnings of the Church’s history, the festival was pre-eminently from the first a favourite time for baptisms (Tertullian, de Bapt. 19).
As in Passover, the Christian Church for the most part took over the name of the festival from the Jews. It was Pentecost for both. But just as Easter replaced Pascha in English and kindred languages, so Whitsunday replaced Pentecost in England through Norse influence. Before the Norman Conquest the season was always known in England as ‘Pentecoste.’ The meaning of Whitsunday has been the subject of much controversy, but has been generally explained by a reference to the white garments of the newly-baptized. W. W. Skeat gives it decidedly as White Sunday, with this explanation (see An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Oxford, 1910, s.v.).
Literature.-Besides the works quoted in the course of the article there may be mentioned G. T. Purves, art._ ‘Pentecost’ in HDB_; I. Benzinger, art._ ‘Pentecost’ in EBi_; art._ ‘Festivals and Fasts [Christian], [Hebrew], [Jewish],’ in ERE_; O. Zöckler, art._ ‘Pfingsten’ in PRE_3; J. L. Magnus, art._ ‘Pentecost’ in JE_; A. Edersheim, The Temple: its Ministry and Services as they were at the Time of Jesus Christ, London, n.d.; E. von Dobschütz, Ostern und Pfingsten, Leipzig, 1903; M. Friedländer, The Jewish Religion, London, 1891.
J. S. Clemens.
(Acts 2)
- The "birthday" of the Church. Greek for the "fiftieth", or 50 days after Easter. On this first occasion, it was held around the time of the Jewish Festival of Weeks, the annual Spring thanksgiving for the first grain harvest
A festival commemorating the giving of the Torah and the harvest of the first fruits, known to Jews as Shavu’ot.
The word ‘pentecost’ means ‘fifty’, and comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It refers to the Israelite harvest festival that was held fifty days after Passover. In the Old Testament this festival is called the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks. In the New Testament it is called the Feast of Pentecost (Lev 23:5-6; Lev 23:15-16; Act 2:1; Act 20:16; 1Co 16:8; for details see FEASTS).
Pentecost is significant in the New Testament story because on that day the church was born. Christ the Passover lamb had been sacrificed; then, fifty days later, God poured out his Spirit on that small group of disciples who were the firstfruits of his new people, the church of Jesus Christ (Act 2:1-4; cf. 1Co 5:7). (Concerning the extraordinary happenings that day see BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT; TONGUES.)
An Israelite or Jewish festival
celebrating the wheat harvest fifty days
after Passover. Also called “Festival of
Weeks.”
The word comes from the Greek which means fifty. So, Pentecost was a celebration on the fiftieth day after Passover. It was a culmination of the feast of weeks (Exo 34:22-23). Pentecost in the NT is the arrival of the Holy Spirit for the church (Act 2:1-47). At Pentecost the disciples of Jesus were gathered and upon the filling of the Holy Spirit, they heard a great wind and spoke in tongues as tongues of fire that settled upon them. The significance of the fire can be found in recognizing it as a symbol of the dwelling of the Spirit of God (Exo 19:18; 1Pe 4:14).